Wednesday, December 21, 2016

Is it too early in the season to begin talking about Draba cuneifolia? I didn’t think so. We are into the third growing season for
Draba planted in one of my garden beds. Classified
as a winter annual, this plant grows through the winter and produces flowers
and seed the following spring. The plant
then dies, leaving a scattering of seeds to produce the next generation.

Draba cuneifolia plants remained alive in this bed until
mid-June 2016. Seedlings began to appear
in late July. The profusion of plants now
growing in the bed points out the inefficiency of my seed collection methods. Plants cover the top and sides of the bed, are
growing in the walkway between beds and have shown up in neighboring beds.

New plants emerged from the end of July through
October. There are probably still new
plants appearing, but they are hard to notice among the mass of plants that are
already there.

In order to survive the winter, these plants must quickly
get a root down below the frost line.
Since they grow primarily in areas of bare soil, they are in danger of
being pushed from the ground through the process of frost heave, which occurs
when soil alternately freezes during cold nights and thaws during the day. Having their roots penetrate stable soil
anchors the plant and keeps it in its proper place. These small plants can produce some extra
long roots. I once saw some plants that
had their roots exposed when heavy deer traffic caused part of a bank to break
away. One plant had 15 inches of root
showing.

Those plants that began growing in July have reached an
impressive size. These are the plants
that will produce masses of flower stalks next April.

Remnants of last year’s plants are still evident. These spindly stalks, along with the dried
Draba leaves, did a good job of protecting the site from erosion through the
summer. I once perceived the appearance
of Draba cuneifolia to be an annual event that passed so quickly, it could
easily be missed. Two decades of observation
has caused me to alter my perceptions. I’ll
admit that the blooming season can sometimes be short, but I have seen years
where blooming plants could be found over a two month period. It seems that the living plants can be found
during a ten month period each year, and their skeletal remains are around
during that two month break. Now that I
know what to look for, I can check on my little friends at any time of the
year.

Monday, December 19, 2016

In November, I managed to get some more work done on Toad
Pool 2, my second attempt to create more toad breeding areas at Blue Jay
Barrens. Frequent rains during the first
part of summer kept the soil too wet to work.
Weather conditions went to the other extreme during the last half of
summer, causing the soil to be too dry to compact. Finally, a perfect balance was reached on
November 17, so I continued with my construction activities.

My construction techniques are fairly simple. I use a tiller to pulverize the soil to be
excavated. The loose soil is scooped out
and deposited to form a dam on the downhill side of the proposed pool. The soil is built up in successive layers of
an inch or less of soil. Each layer of
loose soil is fully compacted before the next layer is added. The idea is to end up with a tightly
compacted barrier to keep water from leaking out of the filled pool.

The soil on this site has no shortage of rocks. Plowing activities that occurred several
decades ago moved rocks to a higher position in the soil profile. On this location, the plows must have been
dragging very near the top of the bedrock layer. During my excavation, I have encountered a
couple of bedrock areas that were pulverized by the ancient meteor impact to a
condition nearing small gravel. This
makes me wonder if the site will be capable of maintaining water for the period
necessary for a batch of toads to be successfully raised.

I decided to finish this year with a pool that is smaller
than planned. I’ll see how well it holds
water next spring and then decide if it is worth the effort to enlarge the pool
area. If it doesn’t hold water, I’ll
then consider the option of installing a pond liner.

On November 30, a half inch rain put the first bit of water
into the pool.

Another half inch of rain a week later brought the pool to
within a few inches of being full. There
are three seasonal springs that feed into this area through the winter and
spring. With luck, they will produce
enough water to offset any leakage in the pool.

On December 17, a 2.5 inch rain filled the pool. Now it’s just a matter of waiting to see what
happens.

Toad pool 1, about a quarter the size of the new addition,
has proven able to maintain water long enough to raise a crop of spring
breeding amphibians. Unfortunately, the
first pool is now four years old and I’m still waiting for the toads to
discover this gem of a breeding area.

Friday, December 16, 2016

I believe I have reached the maintenance stage in my efforts
to control invasive shrubs at Blue Jay Barrens.
After eliminating all of the large, fruit producing specimens, I spent a
couple of years dealing with masses of root sprouts surrounding the dead stumps. Now I deal primarily with newly arrived two
to three year specimens. The Autumn
Olive in the photo above shows what I typically find during my searches for
invasive shrubby species.

Birds are the primary transport mechanism bringing seeds of
invasive plant species onto the property.
Seeds passed through the gut of a bird arrive via bird droppings. The bird’s digestive process softens the hard
seed coat, making it a high likelihood that the seeds will germinate come the
next growing season. Seedlings arising
from this type of process are usually found growing in a closely packed clump
only a few inches across.

A typical clump consists of 8 – 12 individual plants,
identifiable here by the light colored stumps that remained after the tops were
removed. The seeds are most often
deposited in the fall. By the time the
seeds germinate in the spring, they have been separated slightly through the
action of the soil fauna feeding on the non-living portion of the bird dropping,
along with climatic factors such as rain, wind and frost-heave.

I sometimes find first year seedlings, but they are hard to
see because their height rarely exceeds a few inches. It’s more usual to discover the two or three
year old clumps. A plant that reaches
only six inches one year can easily grow to three feet by the following
year.

The seedlings within a clump are in fierce competition with
each other. Only those that make the
most efficient use of the resources within their root zones will survive. Within each clump are one or two stronger stems
that overtop the others. Stems on the outskirts
of the pack frequently grow horizontally along the ground and form roots away
from the group. Here they can develop
with less competition and increase their chances of survival.

The seeds in this group failed to disperse much beyond the
limits of their original deposition.
Horizontal growth was the only way for many of the plants to access
sunlight.

I don’t know how many thousands of seeds are brought into
Blue Jay Barrens by birds each year. It’s
usually not difficult to find fresh seeds on the ground in areas frequently
used by birds for feeding, roosting or loafing.
A good example is this pan of fresh water that I keep near my bird
feeding station.

On the deck beside the pan is an assortment of seeds left
behind by birds coming in to drink or bathe.
From late summer through mid-winter, new seeds are added daily to the
collection. When I empty the old water, done
once or twice each day, there are always a few seeds in the pan. Not all of these seeds come from invasive
species. The majority are Eastern Red
Cedar, a native that happens to be a threat to open grassland and prairie. There are enough invasive seeds though, to
make alien shrub seedlings a permanent fixture here. Fortunately, there are no more invasive
shrubs at Blue Jay Barrens that are mature enough to produce fruit. I am no longer contributing to the problem, I
am just dealing with it.

Monday, December 12, 2016

In many instances, the simple task of hand pulling is the
most effective way of eliminating unwanted plants. This pile of invasive Sweet Clover, Wild
Carrot and Oxeye Daisy was removed from a one acre barrens opening this past
summer. Remnants of last year’s plant
collection can be seen beneath this year’s greenery.

This area is typical of the Blue Jay Barrens openings. Steep, shallow, extremely dry soils present
numerous challenges to plant growth.
Invasive plants can become established, but not with the ease or
rapidity demonstrated in the former cropland areas.

The welcome mat for invasive plants is in the form of
exposed soil, a defining quality of barrens sites. A seedling that overcomes the other obstacles
can grow undisturbed by competing vegetation.
Colonization may be slow, but a persistent species can build quite a
population over a period of years.

This is my fourth year of pulling Sweet Clover and Wild
Carrot from this site. Plant removal is
quite an effective control method for these species. They are biennials that form a rosette in
year one, then produce seed and die in year two. If you can halt the production of seed, you
can eliminate new generations of plants.
An annual maintenance visit to each site is still necessary to catch any
new plants that may emerge. Sites that I
began treating 10+ years ago, now have only a few Sweet Clover plants per acre
and virtually no Wild Carrot. Sweet
Clover seed is notorious for persisting in the soil seed bank and remaining
viable for decades after falling from the plant. In order for the seeds to survive for that
length of time, they need to be incorporated within the soil profile where they
are protected by the ravages of weather and other environmental factors. I’ve noticed that most of the studies of
Sweet Clover seed longevity have been completed on former crop ground, where fresh
clover seed could have been neatly buried by common agricultural tillage
practices. Seed produced on the barrens
is unlikely to get buried to a depth that would allow it to be protected for extended
periods of time. The seed here stays
near the surface and either germinates or dies, so removing plants rapidly
produces positive results.

I’ve also been getting more hands-on with the invasive Oxeye
Daisy.

I’m still looking for an effective control method in the old
crop fields. The plant is too numerous
and too crowded by prairie plants to be easily removed by hand. There are also too many quality native plants
here to make herbicides a viable control alternative.

This Ragged Fringed Orchid, Habenaria lacera, visible in the
center or the preceding photo, is just one of many unassuming plants that has
found itself being pressured by Oxeye Daisy.

Oxeye Daisy has been slowly making its way into the
barrens. I hand pulled the daisy from a few test areas two years ago, with favorable results. This year I pulled Oxeye Daisy right along
with the clover and carrot. New daisy
plants begin as a basal rosette. When
they’ve stored enough energy, they send up a flower stalk.

Oxeye Daisy removal is totally effective if you leave no
viable plant parts in the soil. This
young plant pulled easily and shows no evidence of missing underground parts.

A slightly older plant displays the start of a rhizome that
would eventually give rise to new plants.
The stub of a broken rhizome on a pulled plant means that a viable plant
part has been left behind to grow a new plant next year.

A single plant will eventually produce a thick colony of
plants. This plant has a single tall
flower stalk and three healthy rhizomes.
I think I’ll be able to successfully eliminate Oxeye Daisy from the more
rugged barren sites, but I’m still looking for viable control options in other
areas.

I’m still collecting seed heads from Teasel in early August,
but I also now treat random plants while I’m out doing other invasive species
work. A shot of glyphosate into the
center of a basal rosette will kill the plant, or at least damage it enough
that it never produces a flower. Tall
plants can be cut and the stump given a little spray of glyphosate. These two methods would be difficult to apply
on a large scale, but are handy to use when finding a handful of plants in an
isolated location. It’s easier to
eliminate the plant at the time it is found, than it is to remember to revisit that
spot later on to collect seed heads.

Of course, I’m always interested in animals that feed on
invasive plants. I found this stalk
borer inside the base of a tall Teasel plant.
I doubt the borer would have killed the plant, but similar borers might
be the reason I occasionally find plants broken off at the base. These broken plants may lay down and hide in
the tall grass, but the flower stalks turn upward and still produce plenty of
seeds. Since I have trouble finding
these fallen plants, the borer may actually be hindering my control
efforts. Despite minor setbacks, I’m
sure that I can eventually get most of these invasive plants under control.

Friday, December 9, 2016

I made an effort this year to seek out and spray colonies of
the invasive Crown Vetch. For several
years now, I’ve been finding random clumps of this invasive plant scattered
about Blue Jay Barrens.

My efforts began last autumn when I mowed several Crown
Vetch infested spots in the field. I returned to those spots in April to spray
the early season growth. I also targeted
early season growth between the township road and my field fence.

I elected to use the chemical Clopyralid as a control
agent. Clopyralid is a selective
herbicide that targets broadleaf plants, especially legumes. Unlike glyphosate, which kills all green
growing plants, Clopyralid leaves grasses unhurt, so the treated area does not
become a big bare spot awaiting the arrival of new invasive seeds.

Within a week, the Crown Vetch was showing the effects of
the herbicide.

A month after that, all traces of the invasive plant were
gone.

The light colored area in the background at the upper left
of the photo is the township road that runs along two sides of a large prairie
opening. A scattering of Crown Vetch
plants, remnants of a government funded planting in the early 1980’s, persisted
along the shady lane and produced seed that moved with the rain water to
establish new plants along the edge of my field. Hopefully, that influx of seed will now end.

In late May, I found a large infestation of Crown Vetch in a
low area that receives runoff water from the road ditches.

The vetch was growing at a rate slightly slower than its
companion prairie forbs, making it difficult to see from a distance. Fortunately, I was in the area doing some
other work and just blundered into the middle of the Crown Vetch patch. The Clopyralid successfully eliminated the
vetch from this site, but it also took most of the other broadleaf plants. That was a bit of a disappointment, but there
was plenty of grass left, so the site was not bare.

By late June, the Crown Vetch was blooming. Blooming plants are easy to find and I made
sure to search in all places likely to have an infestation.

Crown Vetch is aggressive enough to eliminate all
neighboring plants. By using a herbicide
that doesn’t result in the elimination of all species, I have left things in
better condition than they would have been if left to the mercy of the
vetch. Crown Vetch increases its growing
area by using a technique known as sprawling.
Stalks grow upright by using neighboring plants for support. Eventually, the stalk overtops the other
plants and falls over. The fallen stalks
form a canopy over surrounding plants, causing those plants to suffer from
shading and become less vigorous. The
affected vegetation eventually dies and the vetch claims this new growing
area. A single patch of Crown Vetch can
eventually cover an entire field.

Most of the Crown Vetch clumps covered less than 50 square
feet. Only one was over 100 square
feet. I’ll have to wait until next
growing season to what grows back on the treated sites, but I think the use of Clopyralid
has had a positive impact on control of the Blue Jay Barrens Crown Vetch
invasion.

Friday, December 2, 2016

On the last day of November, I wandered through this little
patch of ground near the house in search of invasive shrub seedlings. This is a
prime loafing area for many of the birds that routinely visit my feeder. They
are joined by some notorious fruit eaters, such as Robins and Cedar Waxwings,
that make frequent visits to the pan of freshwater kept near the bird feed. A
result of all of these loafing birds is a never-ending supply of invasive shrub
seeds falling with the bird droppings.

The treatment area is just slightly less than half an acre,
but I managed to accumulate a nice little pile of cut shrubs. Each shrub was cut at ground level and the stump was treated with a 41% glyphosate spray. The haul consists
primarily of Bush Honeysuckle with a few Autumn Olive and Multiflora Rose mixed
in.

Most of the shrubs are quite small, but a few push up close
to 3 feet in height. The plants in the center of this group are Bush Honeysuckle,
flanked on the right by a single Multiflora Rose and on the left by a lone Autumn
Olive.

Temperatures this fall have been considerably warmer than
normal, so many of the invasive plant species have remained green. With most
everything else displaying some shade of brown, it’s easy to spot these
invaders in the landscape. Autumn Olive and Multiflora Rose have now lost all
or most of their leaves. This Bush Honeysuckle looks as green as it did midsummer.

I called a halt to this season’s invasive shrub treatments
on November 30. Bush Honeysuckles will soon join the other shrubs and shed
their leaves. It’s pointless to search for these small invasive shrubs when
they have no leaves. A leafless seedling is practically invisible, as
demonstrated by this Bush Honeysuckle, the same plant as in the previous photo,
hand stripped of its foliage. Larger individuals can certainly be dealt with
now, but I seem to have eliminated all of the larger invasive shrubs from
within the Blue Jay Barrens borders.

ABOUT BLUE JAY BARRENS

Located in the Bluegrass region of Southern Ohio, Blue Jay Barrens contains excellent xeric habitat inhabited by a wide variety of rare native plant and animal species. Since 1985, this private property has been managed to improve the integrity of the special ecosystems found here. This blog provides information on the current activities at Blue Jay Barrens.

RESPONSE TO COMMON QUESTIONS ABOUT THIS BLOG

It’s my intent to share information on current events at Blue Jay Barrens. Unless otherwise noted in the text, all photos were taken by me at Blue Jay Barrens.

Plant scientific names are from Gleason and Cronquist 1991. I realize that some changes in preferred nomenclature have occurred, but this is the principle reference I have been using for flora identification. Knowing this, I believe most people can figure out just what plant I’m talking about.

My discussions of flora and fauna are not intended to be a complete life history. There are plenty of good references for this type of information. I am discussing my personal experiences with plants and animals on this specific property. Any other information I may provide is intended to help you understand the significance of my observations.

MY 3 FAVORITE NATURE BOOKS:

1- Of Mosquitoes, Moths and Mice, by C Brooke Worth.2- Mosquito Safari: A Naturalist in Southern Africa, by C Brooke Worth.3- A Naturalist in Trinidad, by C Brooke Worth.

MY 3 FAVORITE FICTION BOOKS:

1- The Witches of Karres by James H Schmitz2- The Day of the Triffids by John Wyndham3- The Windhover Tapes (1st 3 volumes) by Warren Norwood

MY 3 FAVORITE MOVIES:

1- Vanishing Point 1971 with Barry Newman2- Flim Flam Man 1967 with George C Scott - also like the book by Guy Owens3- The Lathe Of Heaven 1979 with Bruce Davison - also like the book by Ursula K LeGuin

MY 3 FAVORITE TV SHOWS:

1- The Prisoner with Patrick McGoohan2- Fawlty Towers with John Cleese3- Kolchak: The Night Stalker with Darren McGavin